Two Time

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Sam Aquillo – ex-boxer, ex-corporate executive and accidental hero of The Last Refuge – is back in this action-packed, page-turning sequel.All Sam wants to do is hammer a few nails into his ramshackle cottage, drink a great deal of vodka, hang out with his dog, Eddie, and stay out of trouble. But trouble seems to find him anyway. When a car bomb outside a trendy waterfront restaurant kills a prominent financial consultant and injures Sam and his lawyer friend Jackie Swaitkowski, he is drawn into the investigation. Where the police have met roadblocks, Sam makes inroads with his trademark wit, instinct and charm. Also, he just wants to know: Why would someone go to such lengths not only to kill someone, but annihilate them? Set, once again, against the backdrop of Southhampton, Long Island, Two Time is full of moody sunsets, beachfront properties and beautiful people with an extraordinary amount of money and very dangerous secrets.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. At the start of Knopf's super second mystery starring ex-boxer and retired engineer Sam Acquillo (after 2005's The Last Refuge), Sam is enjoying a drink with a lady friend at an East Hampton restaurant when a nearby car and its driver are firebombed out of existence. In the aftermath, Sam, assisted by his old buddy, retired cop Joe Sullivan, looks into who might have had it in for the victim, wealthy consultant Jonathan Eldridge. After talking to Eldridge's agoraphobic widow and suspicious-acting lawyer, Sam continues to investigate—and the more he pokes around the more data he turns up suggesting a complex deception involving financial transfers, angry clients who may or may not be Mafia-connected, the murdered man's estranged artist brother and out-of-it mother. A sly depiction of the east end of Long Island and the Hamptons as they really are, combined with strong plotting, solid characters and hard-boiled dialogue worthy of Elmore Leonard or John D. MacDonald will make this a beach read that you won't be able to put down even under threat of sunburn. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review“Knopf has a touch I like – cool, careful, reflective – and a great ear for the comic eccentricities of the human voice.” –Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times“Two Time is delightful. We forget, with all the emphasis on Long Island money, that it used to be farmland, populated by working-class people. Knopf works the conflicts and changes into the setting, and his characters will have readers returning.”–The Globe and Mail“It is difficult to imagine this is only Knopf’s second novel – it is pure gold. Everything about it (characters, plotting, setting) is brilliant.”–Library JournalPraise for *The Last Refuge*:“The characters are such original oddballs and their conversation so bracing that you want to kick off your shoes and spend some time on the porch with them, just taking in the view and enjoying the talk.” –The New York Times“There’s a definite whiff of Elmore Leonard here, particularly in the snappy dialogue and the colorful characters.”–Publishers Weekly“Though the mystery drives the plot, it’s Sam’s rediscovery of himself in middle age that is the real focus in this accomplished debut novel. He is definitely a writer to watch.” –BooklistFrom the Trade Paperback edition.